A Tale of Two Mercs
by Ilevus
Summary: Set one year after the Oblivion Crisis, this story follows two mercenaries and their adventures during a civil war that tears the Empire apart. Spans across three provinces but will be mostly set in Cyrodiil.
1. Chapter 1

**This is my first attempt at writing a fan fiction. Any helpful reviews and constructive criticism is welcomed.**

* * *

It was a thumping noise from outside that woke me.

I had been dimly aware of it for a while, yet I hadn't been sure whether I had been dreaming it or whether the noise was real. The noise started to occur more often until it was going on continuously. It was at that point that I had woken up.

I leaned over my bunk to look down at where the noise was coming from. Jonas was still sleeping peacefully in the lower bunk and seemed to be undisturbed by the noise.

It seemed to be coming from outside the window. I climbed down the ladder at the end of the bunk, making sure not to wake Jonas up. I couldn't see out the window; it was foggy.

I slid the window open, breaking some of the ice that had frozen it in place.

I immediately wished that I hadn't, a gust of wind blew into the room, cold as ice.

"Damn."  
I was about to close the window again when I noticed snow sliding off a tree before hitting the ground with a wet 'thump'. There was water was constantly dropping down to the windowsill as well. This was happening in other parts of the city too.

I realised that the thumping noise I had heard was the snow falling off the trees.

"What's going on?"  
I turned around. Jonas was sitting up, rubbing his eyes. He must have been woken by the cold air that had entered the room.

"What's going on out there?"

I pointed outside.

"The snow is melting. Spring is finally here."

The streets of Sharnhelm were still mostly empty; the sun had only just come up. Still, there were merchants and the like setting up their stalls, no doubt at an early hour so as to get the best spots. The beggars were still as numerous as ever and pestered anyone who came within reach.

_Why couldn't they have frozen to death?_ I thought as I took a detour down an alley to avoid them. The South Gate came into view and I could already see a large group of people anxiously waiting around it. I noticed all of them were travellers; merchants, adventurers, mercenaries like myself and Jonas and even an odd mage or two. They were here for the same reason I was; to see whether the mountain passes were safe to cross yet. The Province of High Rock suffered badly enough that many of its roads were dangerous to use once winter came. The passes through the Wrothgarian Mountains were suicide once the snow set in. If you didn't slip and plummet hundreds of metres onto the rocks below, you froze to death in the sub-zero temperatures during the night. I wrapped my woollen cloak around myself to stay warm as I arrived at the gate, waiting for the patrols to return. Jonas and I had been stuck here in Sharnhelm for three months and we were eager to move on.

"They're here!"

I looked up and saw a patrol of Imperial Horsemen returning to the city.

"It's clear," their leader announced, "The passage through the mountains is safe to use."

I made my way back to the inn, rubbing my hands as I went. I was looking forward to leaving this dismal city and heading south to a warmer climate, somewhere like Taneth or Rihad. Maybe even somewhere in Cyrodiil.

While I had been thinking this, an old woman in rags stepped out in from of me. She grinned, causing the wrinkles on her face to crease up even more. She had her hand out.

"Spare a coin, luv?"

I glared at the beggar. Bothering someone who had a battle-axe strapped to their back and was obviously a mercenary wasn't what one would consider safe. This beggar was either very brave or very stupid. Or both.

"Ain't got not gold for you."

"Aw, come on! You're one of them mercenary types, aint'cha? You must 'ave gold coming out of yer ears!"

I began to grow irritated. I shoved her aside and kept walking.

"Aww, don't be that way! Come on! Just one coin!"

I ignored her and kept walking. She followed me nonetheless and continued to jabber on.

"Come on you git! I'm poor and weak! You should respect yer elders!"  
I spun around and punched her as hard as I could in the stomach. She fell to the floor clutching her stomach in pain.

"Look you little witch, I don't give a DAMN about my 'elders'. There's only one thing that I respect and that's this," I indicated my fist, "Strength. And you have none of that. All you people do is drag us down with you. You don't deserve my gold or my respect."

I looked around and noticed several other beggars were watching me, all frightened out of their wits.

"What are you lot looking at?"

They all immediately disappeared into side streets and back alleys. I left the old hag where she lay and made my way to the inn.

Jonas had already packed our things and was waiting in front of the building.

"What's wrong? You look annoyed."

I shook my head, indicating I didn't want to talk about it. He understood and spoke nothing of it.

We made our way to the South Gate, noticing a distinct lack of beggars as we made our way through the winding streets of Sharnhelm. We passed by the old beggar I had attacked, now lying motionless on the street. I think she was dead. Personally I couldn't care less and didn't check. As we exited the gates Jonas turned to me.

"Where to now sir?"  
"Don't call me that. We're not in the Legion you know."  
"Sorry. Where are we going Gaston?"

"We'll make our way through the Wrothgarian Mountains and into Orsinium. The Orcs might be looking for some mercs, who knows. If not, we'll keep heading south until we reach the border. Then we'll either head west for Wayrest or east to Evermor."

"…Gaston?"  
"Yes?"

"That old lady, the beggar lying in the street… did you kill her?"

"I did."  
"Why?"

"I'm just a prick I guess."


	2. Chapter 2

We made our way eastward, following the major road that would take us into Orsinium. It was the only way to enter the city-state from the north; impassable mountain ranges blocked every other direction. I noticed Jonas was deep in thought as we walked along. That usually meant that any moment now he would ask some strange question…

Any moment now…

"Sir?"

"By the Nine! Stop calling me 'sir'."  
"Sorry sir… I mean Gaston. There's someone following us."

"Huh? Where?"

"Up there." He pointed to a nearby cliff. A hunched over figure immediately ducked out of sight.

I frowned.

"Bandits. They must be taking advantage of the lack of guards up here. Well, there's nothing we can do…"  
"Sir! Look out!"

I spun around, instinctively grabbing my battleaxe and swinging it in a wide arc. I felt, before I saw the bandit that had snuck up on us. My axe cleaved into him, killing him instantly. I looked around and sure enough more bandits were clambering over the hills, yelling out as they charged us. Jonas drew his twin scimitars and charged them in turn, a look of complete calm on his face.

I tried to go help him out, but my axe was stuck in the bandit's body. A big Nord came bounding over to me screaming as he raised a massive claymore like it was feather. I threw the bandit's corpse at him. The claymore cleft the body in two and the force of the blow loosened my axe. I ducked under the Nord's next swing and dived between his legs, my short stature allowing me to do so. I landed next to the body and wrenched my axe from the corpse just in time to barely block the Nord's crushing stroke. The force of the attack was so strong it pushed my battleaxe into my own chest, cutting through my fur armour and drawing some blood.

The Nord raised his claymore for the killing blow.

I kicked upwards, a crunching noise followed as my boot hit his groin. He howled in pain and dropped his weapon into the snow. I stood up and with a great roar swung my axe down and dispatched my foe.

I turned and saw that Jonas had already dispatched two of our attackers and was already taking on the last two. I charged forwards, my target a Dunmer with a shortsword. He turned just in time to see my axe swing and embed itself into his side. He fell dead; eyes still wide open in astonishment. I turned to see Jonas cleaning his sword, having defeated his own opponent. He looked at me and gave me one of his rare smiles.

I smiled too, blood still dripping from my axe and face.

"Well _that_ was fun!" I laughed.

After stripping the bodies of any valuables (if you consider 12 gold valuable), we continued on our journey, our spirits lifted greatly after the fight. After being stuck for so long in Sharnhelm, we hadn't had a good old brawl in ages and it was good to get back into the old cycle.

We stopped by a cave for the night. It wasn't dark yet, but we didn't know when we would come across some more shelter and I didn't want to a risk a night out in the open just yet, especially after the bandit attack.

About an hour in, several more travellers arrived, also wishing to use the cave as shelter. I recognised several of them from Sharnhelm. No doubt they were eager to take the first chance south, just like we were. One of them, a big Orc, even enquired about our journey.

"A safe journey I hope?" His voice hinting that he knew it hadn't been.

"Actually we ran into a few bandits. Nothing we couldn't handle."

"Ah! So that _was_ you back there? I must say, you left the road an awful bloody mess."

I grinned and drank some of the ale that had been passed around.  
"It's what we do best."

We talked a while. His name was Kordak-Gro-Malog, but we just called him Kordak. He was a mercenary too and was heading south to look for work, just like us.

"So where specifically are you two headed?"  
"We thought we'd check to see if Orsinium needed any help."

Kordak shook his head.

"You kidding me? Orsinium hasn't had any sort of crisis since the 'Warp in the West' or whatever those scholar boys call it. You might want to try further south, in Wayrest. I hear Queen Elysana is hiring. Something to do with the Oblivion Crisis we've had recently. That's where I'm headed."

I looked over at Jonas. He was sharpening one his scimitars with a whetstone, but had been listening in on our conversation.

"What do you think?" I asked him.  
He shrugged.

"Whatever's fine with you sir… I mean Gaston."

I shook my head and smiled. Jonas may be a hell of a fighter, but what he really lacked was an opinion. I turned back to Kordak.

"I guess we'll tag along. Mercenaries can't be choosers after all."

Kordak grinned.

"Great! I was the only one heading there out of this group," he indicated the other travellers he had arrived with, "It'll be great to have company the rest of the way."

The night passed by with more conversations, ale passed around and a lot out of tune drinking songs.

Jonas, however, was silent as always.


End file.
